My Thoughts on Disagreement

Someone said once: “Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one, and if we don’t use them we will drown in our own bullshit”. We, as individuals, are helpless when it comes to share our opinions. We must tell the world what we think because we must. There is no reason behind it. We must say it at any cost, it doesn’t matter what we lose or gain from it, and we have to fulfil our destiny in that we must tell everyone in every chat room, forum, blog, website, public service announcement, movie, TV show, comic, book and newspaper what we think. We don’t care about objectivity all we care about is our own selfish opinion.

So why is it that people are so troubled and get so angry when they find someone else with a different opinion than theirs? Why do they jump and start yelling and shouting and throwing hissy fits and basically acting like monkeys in a cage throwing crap at each other? Why do we lose all semblance of human decency when we see people disagreeing with us? This happens everywhere, but the internet being a public and open place is an easier and more accessible example, and since my topic revolves around ponies, like it always does. I think it makes sense that we have to talk about angry people with different opinions within our fandom. Because it makes sense to me, roll with it, we are going in.

There is a recurrent theme going on in the comments section of my blog, and I have seen it pop up every now and then which is pretty interesting. Never before I had a group of people, and random individuals disguised as anons, appear in something I created to word a shared opinion. I am talking about the predictable animosity that the majority of this fandom projects against an internet reviewer called Chad Rocco, also known as CR, who works with That Guy with the Glasses producing online reviews of board games and TV shows. He is also well known for liking Friendship is Magic, and disliking the third season of this show. He has said more than once how much the show has deteriorated ever since Lauren Faust left it, and to him the boiling point of suck came with the Season 2 finale and the introduction of Princess Cadance to the cast of colourful pastel miniature equines. Ever since that episode premiered, he has been very vocal in Twitter and DeviantArt respect Season 3, and how the show has lost a big chunk of its identity. The rant he tweeted regarding the whole Alicorn Twilight change is worthy of being framed and hang upon a wall.

Pretty much like this, crying pony included and everything.

But you know what? I personally have no problem with CR. Not at all. I don’t know him personally, but from what I’ve seen I think he is a pretty alright guy. I like his “Cheap Damage” reviews, to the point that his review on the DoctorWho trading card game made me get interested in the Doctor Who TV show. I think one of the best online reviews I’ve seen in my life was his take on “Super Nerds”, one of the most awkward series pilot ever produced. In this review he had a very funny sketch where he said how Friendship is Magic was turning into a bad show because of the “Mysterious Mare-do-Well” episode. This was all prior to the Season 2 finale, which I find very ironic. In that video CR made a caricature of himself as a rabid fanboy who was getting mad over a TV show. As of now, his rants and his rage towards the third season of Friendship is Magic have been going for so long that I don’t think he is joking anymore.

I actually think he really is that mad, and like the normal human being that he is, he voices his opinion. And what happens when he voices his opinion? Well, from my side, I get quite a lot of people coming at me saying: “CR has said something mean about My Little Pony, he says season 3 sucks, what do you think?” and my very first response to both CR and those who come at me is rolling my eyes hard enough to get the planet out of orbit. I roll my eyes because people think this is worth caring about, and I roll my eyes at how CR voices his thoughts. Let me tackle each subject separately.

Organization!

We can’t fight against our necessity to defend what we like. If we like something and we see somebody hating on it we will jump in front of that person and wield our opinion like we are wielding a shield and a sword, bravely defending our favourite thing like it is a damsel in distress. I’ve done it multiple times. I have defended Nintendo, Metroid, Tron Legacy, Avatar (the James Cameron movie), Pokémon, and many other things over which I’ve gotten so mad about just because there was one person sitting in front of his or her computer voicing their opinions. We don’t understand that opinions are just that, opinions. If somebody says something we love sucks, that doesn’t affect the status of what we like. We shouldn’t perceive what we like differently just because somebody doesn’t like it as much as we do. Imagine you have a car. If I go to your car and I say it sucks the car is still intact, nothing has changed in it. However, and this is going to segue into the next topic, if I go to your car, I say it sucks, and then I bash on it with a baseball bat, then you actually have a reason to get mad at me.

And to any other fillies involved in the wreck.

That’s the keyword here: Bash.

What many people do when they want to get their point across on how much they hate something is that they bash on it. They will make hateful comments, mean comparisons, photo edits with internet memes, and so and so forth to make their remarks even more remarkable. They do this to leave an impact. This is how CR is starting to voice his thoughts on the third season of Friendship is Magic and everything he doesn’t like about the show in general. When he first mentioned the things he didn’t like (like canon Princess Luna, the introduction of Cadance, the direction the show runners were taking with Season 3) I thought he was voicing his opinions like a reasonable individual. I can see why he was so upset that Lauren Faust’s departure from the show brought several changes to the tone, and that her original plans are now irrelevant since the big corporate machine that is Hasbro took control of it. I personally think that Meghan McCarthy and her team are doing a fantastic job, and I like everything they’ve put together so far, and my disagreements with him go up to that point. 

However, I've always supported those who don't like the new characters because they are there to promote a new toy, regardless of how much I like these characters.

CR didn’t seem to shove anything down people’s throats, and he sounded level headed. Nowadays he is more vocal about it, and it doesn’t matter how much I try to avoid him, he appears out of nowhere to bash his opinion on my face; to the point that I am watching the newest Nostalgia Critic video and there he is, bashing on it. I had no problem with it before, but now it’s gotten into Crazy Frog levels of annoyance. I respect his opinion and I can see why he has it, but he is going too far with it. He has become one of those nerds that he made fun of in his “Super Nerds” review. I am here making commissions, worrying over bills, trying to keep my life going, and enjoying a show about colorful ponies in my spare time, so when he shows up to slap his thoughts all over the place I “change the channel”, not because I disagree with him (which I do) but because I am sick of it and of how he expresses them.

Hey Twilight, you look just like how I feel.

And, in my opinion, that is the actual problem.

I think people don’t get upset because we have different opinions. People get upset because of how we word them. I am very careful when it comes to share my opinions with people, especially in this blog. I try to word them carefully and to not be insulting. I use as little swear words as possible, and I try to learn all sides of the argument before I jump in and tell everybody what I think. I end up getting one or two angry comments, but the vast majority of all those who read my blog proved to be very level headed when replying to me, even when they disagreed with what I had to say. So this way of wording my thoughts works, at least for me, in this blog, and under these circumstances. I never considered myself an important person in any fandom I’ve been a part of. I am just a small drop of water in the massive ocean that is the internet and my opinion carries only the weight I give to it. However I feel like I have a responsibility to those who visit this blog regularly, because I feel like you guys take my opinion into account, so here are my final thoughts regarding opinions, disagreement, agreement, and CR’s attitude.

Review Wrap Up time.

I still think CR is an alright guy. Like I said, I don’t know him personally, but he produces good videos and for the most part he knows how to voice his opinion constructively. I am looking forward to his future reviews, whether they are pony related or not. If you know how to voice your opinion with respect and with thoughtful arguments, you can save yourself a lot of trouble, and if you have people coming at you bashing on you because your opinion is different, that’s fine. You don’t need to get out of your way and tell them to shut up, just let them be like that, let them have their opinion in any way you want them to. You have to know that what matters in the end, and what people will remember the most, will be your reaction. So it’s up to you to decide. Would you rather be the reasonable guy who enjoys a cartoon, or the guy who said the fandom is full of hypocrites who have misplaced theirtrust and move on herd mentality?

I think I’d rather be the first, but then again, that’s just my opinion.